Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Saturday

After months and months of delays caused by NIMBY nonsense and union politics, the City Council reversed course and will allow Providence Holy Cross Medical Center to resume construction of a much needed expansion to provide trauma services. Kerry Carmody, Chief Operating Officer for Providence Health Services, said “This isn’t just a great day for Providence Holy Cross, it’s a big victory for our entire community.” The Providence system - a nearly 150 year old organization of Catholic nuns who created it as a ministry - is one of the few non-profit hospital systems left and is widely recognized for it's excellent medical care.

Rick Orlov reports the crowd is lining up of potential candidates to replace Wendy Greuel on the City Council when she assumes the Controller position in July.  All the usual suspects include School Board Member Tamar Galatzan (who said she wouldn't run, former Assembly Member Cindy Montanez (who made a deal two years ago not to run for CD7), Jack Weiss field deputy Joan Pelico, Studio City Neighborhood Council President Ben Neumann and former Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council President Ken Gerston.  However the fly in the ointment for this would be candidates is that the City Council has the power to opt to appoint a successor to Greuel instead of calling for an election. Insiders tell me that a deal is potentially in the works between the Council and Mayor to appoint Montanez - as payback for her dutiful loyalty - and to cite budget issues and election fatigue as a reason to forgo a special election.  Stay tuned.

PoliticalReformBlog.com is right when they say that the process for allowing elected officials to create the name and ballot summary for questions submitted to the people is broken.  This is what allows items like Measure B to go to the ballot as "Good Jobs and Green Living" or the Measure S phony cell phone tax increase that was called a tax cut.  However their idea of paying random voters $1000 to sit down and work out a description is ridiculous.  A better plan would be to create a panel of retired judges, three Democrats, three Republicans and three from all other parties who would hash out and create the titles and ballot summaries.

The City Council got a report from Caltrans that's startling. 75% of all landscaped areas along LA's freeways are in need of rehabilitation, and about 90% of the vegetation is at or near the end of its natural life. Additionally 7,622,234 square feet of graffiti was removed from along freeways in the district last year at a cost of $2.7 million. Let's put the punks who create this graffiti blight - as well as their parents if they're minors - handle doing some of the landscape and clean-up work while we charge them for the damage.